Pip Pyle's Equip'Out - Instants (2004)

"Like several other veterans of the 1970s Canterbury progressive music scene, drummer Pip Pyle (Hatfield and the North, National Health) went further into jazz. On this live 1994 recording, his quartet includes Elton Dean (alto sax, saxello), Patrice Meyer (guitar), and Paul Rogers (bass). Dean, of course, reinforces the Canterbury connection as a Soft Machine alumni, and like other post-'70s projects by those in the Soft Machine/Canterbury orbit, this is a sort of fusion of free jazz and actual jazz fusion. It's more inclined toward the free jazz component than average, however, and that's good. For there's uncompromising free jazz energy in these 5 lengthy pieces, though Meyer's electric guitar adds an element that wasn't often heard in early free jazz, and there's Canterbury humor in the consecutive song titles. The passages on which Dean's wailing takes the spotlight are the standouts, though Pyle's active, ever-shifting rolling patterns mark him as a strong force as well." (Richie Unterberger, Allmusic)